Money trouble in paradise for the Eden Project

THE Eden Project’s famous domes are being propped up by hundreds of thousands of pounds from taxpayers’ cash.

PROBLEM: Despite the Eden Project's popularity, there are not enough visitors to pay for its needs [GETTY]

In the past three and a half years Cornwall Council has put £1.3million into the tourist attraction, £345,000 in direct funding and £194,833 for “everyday business” as well as contributing £815,108 via “third parties”.

Now the authority admits payments of around £205,000 were left off its transparency report “in error”.

Despite the financial aid, the Eden Project, which gathers together plants from all round the world, has had to make about 60 workers redundant this year. Falling attendances and financial losses have been blamed.

According to an Eden Project spokesman, the attraction has generated more than £1billion for the wider Cornish economy and has been credited with creating 2,000 jobs elsewhere.

He claimed it would be fundamentally wrong to suggest Eden is dependent on local authority funding.

The Eden Project was opened with much fanfare in March 2001 as a landmark project to commemorate the new millennium.

Built in a former clay quarry near St Austell, the educational venue welcomed its one millionth visitor within a few months.

Recent visitors have included the Prince of Wales, while the Olympic Torch also stopped at the attraction as part of its tour of the UK last year.